$51 Million For Bojangles Coliseum? A Talking Document Tells Us Why

A request for $51 million of city money to rehab the Bojangles Coliseum was a bit surprising. The city has already approved $25 million to renovate the site. This new proposal is still just that, a proposal. But it left us wondering just what this additional money would be used for. So we turned to a real person and a talking document to find out.

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Some stories are best told through the magic of radio. How else can you have a "talking document." But for our web friends we've decided to list just some of the key points listed in the actual document. All bullet points are from the actual text. Non bullet pointed text is just a bit of our own writing but all is based on that four page document.

Some of the requests are practical:

The original roof is in surprisingly good shape. The center of the of the dome needs replacing and some repair (cost $600,000).

$5.2 million to replace the building’s heating and air conditioning systems.

$1.8 million for exterior repairs including the windows on the front of the coliseum.

Some requests sound, well, bring up the girth of our fair city and its population:

$1.6 million to remove and replace seating. The original seats are wooden, not comfortable and are sized for a “thinner” population.

And some requests are outright guesses:

Asbestos removal. $2 million. CRVA says asbestos is extensive. No analysis done, so this is a grab number.

Nowhere in the document is there a breakdown of the costs of tearing down the coliseum and starting from scratch. Randy Harrington, the city budget director says simply "I have not heard of that being discussed."

It took a year longer than usual, but the Charlotte City Council approved a 3-cent property tax increase for capital improvement projects on Monday night.

The same plan got derailed last year because it included money to extend the streetcar. When the council passed a capital plan without the streetcar, Mayor Anthony Foxx vetoed it. The city is now pursuing funding for the streetcar separately and the council easily passed the rest of the capital plan last night.

An indoor, amateur sports complex and a small hotel would replace Bojangles Arena and Ovens Auditorium, under a private developer’s plan the City of Charlotte is considering. It’s the only proposal from a developer the city received, after allocating $25 million in its Capital Improvement Plan to redevelop the underused arena—and the declining area around it. WFAE’s Ben Bradford joined Morning Edition host Kevin Kniestedt to take a look at the proposal.

The City of Charlotte has put out a call for proposals to redevelop Bojangles’ Coliseum into an amateur sports center. The city has agreed to pay $25 million to upgrade the coliseum and buy land beside the property for parking.

The city is looking for a private developer to build a 150-room hotel and a sports facility that includes at least eight basketball courts that can be adapted to other uses.